Garments sewn of conventional woven cloth represent the result of a great number of processing steps including the following, for example: carding of the fibers, yarn spinning, weaving, fabric finishing, fabric cutting, sewing, washing, and pressing. The production of garments from conventional woven cloth is, therefore, both labor and capital intensive.
Various proposals have been made in the prior art for producing material and garments in a much less expensive way. One such area of investigation that has enjoyed some market exposure is the use of non-woven fabrics. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,032,774 and 3,179,955 describe a technique for producing a seamless garment of a non-woven fabric in which individual fibers are blown into a chamber and into engagement with a mold. A binder is applied to the fibers while they are in engagement with the mold and defines the garment shape.
Garments produced in accordance with the teachings of the aforementioned U.S. patents involve a number of disadvantages, namely that they do not tend to hold their shape in use and, due to the flat arrangement of fibers thereon, the fibers do not provide an adequate passage of moisture through the fabric. In addition, these methods produce a layer of fibers on a forming surface which is later separated from the garment and thus does not form a part thereof. For these reasons, inter alia, many non-woven fabrics are designed for disposable applications, i.e. one time use only.
One known method of strengthening a web of material is to work the web with barbed needles which mechanically push some fibers through the web. A similar method of punching fibers through a plastic sheet using needles is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,994,759.
An alternate method of producing a strengthened non-woven fabric utilizing interacting fibers is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,706. The method disclosed therein comprises supporting a web or batt of loose fibrous material upon a perforated screen or other patterning member. Very high energy jets of water at high pressure are sprayed along the web by means of nozzles of very small diameter. The jets of water serve to force the loose fibers or portions of fibers to become entangled with one another and to project through the perforations or depressions in the patterning member, thus producing a textured fabric of the desired pattern upon removal of the web from the supporting patterning member.
It is also well known to produce multiple use clothing items from individual fibers. One example is the manufacture of hats, as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,277,042, in which a perforated cone is connected to a source of negative pressure at the interior thereof and individual fibers are distributed on the cone from the outside thereof and are temporarily retained thereon by the applied vacuum. An adhesive binder is applied to the fibers and the perforated cone is removed.